Breitling Superocean Automatic 42 A17375211B1S1: specs and checks

Thirty-eight hours is the number to lead with

Breitling specifies the Breitling 17 at approximately 38 hours of power reserve, running at 28,800 v.p.h on 26 jewels.

That is at the bottom of the range covered here. Most of this corpus sits between fifty-five and eighty hours, and only a couple of dress references come anywhere near thirty-eight. Most of the corpus sits between 55 and 80 hours; one holds 120.

The practical consequence is not subtle. A watch taken off on Friday evening is stopped by Sunday morning, every single time. Not occasionally, not if it was undercharged — always. There is no scenario in which this reference survives a weekend in a drawer.

That is a perfectly ordinary specification for a movement of this type, and it is a completely reasonable watch. But a buyer coming from a modern long-reserve movement will interpret a stopped watch as a defect and call you about it.

Say it in advance, in the listing: approximately 38 hours; it will stop if you do not wear it. One sentence, no returns.

The bezel must refuse to help you

The bezel is specified as unidirectional, ratcheted, and that combination is a safety feature rather than a style choice.

A diver sets the bezel's zero against the minute hand at the start of a dive and reads elapsed time from it. If the bezel gets knocked, a unidirectional bezel can only rotate in the direction that makes elapsed time look longer — which brings the diver up early. A bezel that can turn freely both ways can make the dive look shorter than it was.

So test it as a safety component, not as a feature. Grip it and try to turn it clockwise: it should not move at all. Then run it anticlockwise through a full revolution, counting clicks and feeling for any that are mushy or missing. A ratchet that skips is a bezel that lies.

The crown is the seal

At 30 bars — 300 metres — with a screw-locked crown with two gaskets, the crown is doing real work.

Unscrew it and screw it back down five or six times, paying attention to the first quarter turn each time. The thread should catch immediately and smoothly. Grittiness, a thread that needs hunting for, or a crown that will not sit flush against the case are all signs of damage to the tube — and the tube is part of the case.

While the crown is out, look at the exposed stem for corrosion.

What the rating does and does not tell you

300 metres describes a watch as it left the factory.

Gaskets compress and harden. A case that has been opened has been resealed by someone whose work you cannot see. An unserviced dive watch of unknown history has an unknown rating, whatever is engraved on it.

If you are selling this as a watch someone will swim in, get it pressure tested and say so. If you are not going to test it, then describe the specification as 300 metres and say plainly that the rating has not been verified on this example. Both are honest. Repeating the factory number as though it were a current measurement is not.

The strap is rubber, which is a consumable with a shelf life. Bend it hard at the lugs and look into the fold for fine cracks.

Case dimensions: 42 mm across, 12.56 mm thick, 22 mm between the lugs, tapering 22/18 mm to an 18 mm folding clasp.